Upstairs, downstairs

Susan Huber, president of the Hayner Board of Trustees, said the board voted 5-2 Tuesday in favor of the shopping mall owner’s “Plan B” terms – namely, to relocate the branch from the second floor to first-floor space near Sears.

“At least we can expand,” she said.

The new proposal, from owner Coyote Management of Addison, Texas, would have the library moving to 18,006 square feet on the northwest end of the mall now occupied by GNC Nutrition and Waldenbooks, which would relocate.

“I think we are going to have more visibility and more access to our patrons,” Huber said. “I like the center court; maybe the library can participate in activities” the mall holds there.

She also said it would be easier for all the construction work to happen at once at the lower level, instead of in two phases upstairs.

Trustees Sue Fitzgerald and Kevin Botterbush voted “no.”

“I think it’s less space there for the money,” Botterbush said later. “There are too many questions out there. It would be better to put this on hold and look for someplace to build a new library. We are not getting a good ‘bang for our buck.’ What we wanted to do, we can’t do.”

A Telegraph reporter did not attend the special meeting, because neither trustees nor Hayner Executive Director Jeffrey Owen notified the newspaper about the planned session.

Huber called The Telegraph after the meeting.

For months, the library board had been planning to renovate its current, 6,123-square-foot space and expand into 18,762 square feet adjoining to the north, to total 24,885 square feet.

What put the kink in the process was that Hayner’s architect, Richard McCarthy, principal of Burnidge Cassell Associates of Elgin, Ill., discovered the design schematics he formulated – with a load of 100 pounds per square foot – did not meet a state weight load requirement.

Coyote President Robert D. Lee subsequently hired an engineer to study stress load at the space. Huber said trustees never did find out what that engineer determined, and Lee declined to tell a reporter. Last year, though, McCarthy had said his engineer believed the weight load is 75 pounds per square foot in Hayner’s space.

McCarthy recommended the library place three-shelved bookshelves 6 feet apart to distribute book weight. That meager shelf space would not hold enough books to alleviate overcrowding at the Main Library Downtown, Huber said.

She said Lee’s new proposal contains the same total rent amount, although the space is smaller, but first floors generally have “prime” rents.

According to a 10-year lease agreement with Coyote that trustees unanimously approved last October, rent of the combined second-floor spaces would be $174,195 per year for the first five years, then rise to $186,637 for each of the next five years. The contract allows for lease extensions.

The second-floor expanded space would have worked out to $7 per square foot rent, while the proposed location on the first floor would be more than $9 per square foot rent. Huber said the new proposal still has Coyote providing Hayner with $700,000 toward improvements.

Huber said the board has not gotten an agreement or amended lease to sign with Coyote regarding the proposed change of plans. She said the board may hold more special meetings to consider the agreement and to accept construction bids.

The goal of both sides is to finish work by Oct. 15, but Huber said there would be no penalties if it isn’t done by then.

The current contract requires the work be completed by Aug. 15. It also required Hayner to begin paying rent in April for the expansion space, but Huber said trustees “sent a letter saying since we are not able to occupy it,” they wouldn’t pay that extra rent until it is occupied.